My father, Rik Butcher, who has died aged 81, started his professional life as a journalist, working on regional newspapers and as a freelance before finishing his career as the public relations manager for Perkins Engines in Peterborough.
But he also had a second vocation – in politics. A liberal whose political hero was Jo Grimond, he stood unsuccessfully as the Liberal party candidate for Bedford at the 1970 general election and later tried for election – again without luck – as an Independent county council candidate for Oundle in Northamptonshire in 1981.
